Discord hasn't yet obtained approval for their contract from the American Arbitration Association. They're not on the list.[1] Until a company gets on that list, which has a fee, the AAA will refuse to run arbitrations involving contracts specifying AAA arbitration. The AAA does this to prevent companies from adding additional unfavorable terms to arbitration agreements.<p>At least Discord specified AAA arbitration. They're considered legitimate. There are arbitration services that are much worse. One is a front for a debt collection company.<p>[1] <a href="https://apps.adr.org/ClauseRegistryUI/faces/org/adr/extapps/clauseregistry/view/pages/clauseRegistry.jsf" rel="nofollow">https://apps.adr.org/ClauseRegistryUI/faces/org/adr/extapps/...</a>
FYI, the forced arbitration clause has existed in the ToS since 2018. This is not new.<p>Blog post from 2018: <a href="https://discord.com/safety/terms-of-service-feedback-and-changes" rel="nofollow">https://discord.com/safety/terms-of-service-feedback-and-cha...</a>
Archived version of ToS from may 2020: <a href="https://discord.com/terms/terms-of-service-may-2020" rel="nofollow">https://discord.com/terms/terms-of-service-may-2020</a>
This feels like a giant waste of energy that could be put into better causes. The number of people who are eligible to opt out now (those who already opted out in previous iterations) is microscopic compared to Discord's wider user base, and I would be absolutely shocked if a single person involved in this actually ends up suing Discord either individually or as part of a class.<p>Whether or not you believe forced arbitration is bad, it seems like there have to be higher value causes to get up in arms about right now.
If you're looking for an open-source, self-hostable, end-to-end encrypted Discord alternative, check out Spacebar.<p>Still in development, though is promising.<p><a href="https://github.com/spacebarchat/spacebarchat">https://github.com/spacebarchat/spacebarchat</a>
As a consumer, I’m not sure I understand the disdain for forced arbitration. I understand discord desires it because it helps prevent rulings becoming case law.<p>But I am going through forced arbitration right now in a personal lawsuit, and part of it is bleeding to a third party that does <i>not</i> arbitrate, which means real court. By all accounts I have been assured by my lawyer we are in a better position pursuing arbitration over litigation. Both seem to be quite expensive options, though fortunately there is a clause for legal fees to the prevailing side (and in my case evidence in my favor is airtight).<p>Any enlightenment would be wonderful.
Me in the EU: and nothing of value was lost (since I literally can’t lose my right to sue them)<p>When is the USA going to realise that allowing companies to behave like this shouldn’t be allowed?
It's really funny to see discord users suddenly caring about their "data". Makes me wonder if extreme examples are necessary for people to realize the need of privacy
<a href="https://neowin.net/forum/topic/1440754-discord-applying-forced-arbitration-opt-out-before-it-is-too-late" rel="nofollow">https://neowin.net/forum/topic/1440754-discord-applying-forc...</a>
seems like a better link.
Looks like all those laws the EU passed are doing their job because EU is exempt. Good to know that we still have a parliament and politicians that care about the common man.
I am generally against forced arbitration, so I understand the push back against this. Then again, and maybe I am just overly tired right now, but I cannot imagine a scenario where I would be involved in any sort of legal action whatsoever against a chat server company? Can someone share with me a plausible example of where this would come into play for an ordinary user?
Most businesses are reactive, not proactive. They get a whiff that something has gone wrong, and they react.<p>In discords case, they are likely doing this because they are expecting a lawsuit in regards to the SpyPet scraping.
The threat of mass-filed arbitration is almost like the new class action.<p>For me, I don't want to be forced to pay for my day in court (and the years of paperwork to get there).